Ground excavating equipment for moving/removing ground materials such as rock, sand, mineral deposits and the like (hereafter generally “ground”) typically has a bucket or container with an open front end that is forced into the ground to scoop up a load of ground. To facilitate digging into the ground, the sides and lower edge of the open bucket end are defined by a lip, suitably secured to the accompanying bucket, which mounts a variety of ground contacting components such as digging teeth and shrouds, for example.
To protect the lip from wear and tear while permitting the intermittent replacement of worn teeth, the latter are normally removably secured to an adapter, with wedges, bolts, etc., so that the worn teeth can be replaced. The adapters are in turn removably mounted to the lip of the bucket so that they can also be replaced when worn, or to secure a different component to the lip that requires its own adapter. In this manner, the costly bucket lip is protected against wear to the maximum extent possible.
In the past, reconnection of the adapter or component to the lip has been problematic because it is subjected to large forces, high loads, shock, vibration and contamination by abrasive materials, all of which have the tendency of inadvertently loosening or freezing the connection. Both are undesirable because they make it more difficult, time-consuming and costly to replace adapters, teeth and/or other components mounted to the lip at the front end of the bucket and/or cause equipment down-time.
An additional difficulty encountered with bucket lips is that the lip must be capable of receiving and holding components of widely differing shapes and/or sizes and at different positions over the length of the horizontal and upwardly extending sides of the lips. In some instances, the lips were provided with forwardly extending projections positioned and configured to place particular components at predetermined locations along the lip. Such lips were ill-adapted for placing the components at different locations where, for example, the needed projection to mount a given component is not available. Alternatively, the operator of the equipment can be provided with a supply of adapters which are configured so that they can be placed over the length, or part of the length, of the lip. A big disadvantage of such an arrangement is the need to store and keep track of a relatively large supply of parts, which is costly to acquire as well as to install.
Finally, conventional ground excavating equipment typically employed straight, oval, rounded and/or threaded wedge members which had to engage tightly fitting, overlapping bores in the adapter and the lip to keep the adapter firmly in place in the rough environment in which excavating equipment operates. Such wedge-like members are time-consuming to install and difficult to remove, which renders them costly and therefore undesirable.